Missouri Senate votes to send Harry Truman back to DC

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - The Missouri Senate has voted to send Harry Truman back to Washington.

The proposal, approved Tuesday 32-0, directs that a statue of the former president from Missouri be displayed in the U.S. Capitol. States get to choose two people for the National Statuary Hall Collection, and Missouri has displayed the same two men since the end of the 19th century.

Truman will displace one of them.

The conundrum is that one man, Thomas Hart Benton, was a former slave owner and the other, Francis Preston Blair, Jr., an outspoken racist. The Legislature decided years ago to keep Benton, but lawmakers are now re-thinking that decision after Republicans objected to having two Democrats represented.